Global warming bringing more feathered friends to annual count

COMMON GOLDENEYE

ALMAGUIN – A warming early December trend is showing more birds sticking around for the annual bird count.

Bird watchers headed out to see what they could find on the first day of the Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 14.

According to Martin Parker, this is the 36th year for the Burk’s Falls Christmas Bird Count, with 22 participants.

They found 2,540 birds of 36 different species.

The warming trend, with open lakes in early December, allowed them to spy a loon for the fourth time, Canada geese, and record numbers of the golden eye duck.

“For the hooded merganser, it is only the sixth time on the count, but… three years in a row now, it’s now becoming an expected bird,” he said. “Whereas 10 years ago, it wasn’t here because there was no open water.”

The hooded merganser is a small duck with a big white patch on the head and brown on the side of the body. The big merganser, which shows a lot of white with a green head, was also in great numbers this year with 61 turning up on the count. The previous high was 53 in 2001, the first winter with open water.

“I think we potentially have more water birds than the North Bay count because Nipissing freezes over quicker than places like Lake Bernard,” said Parker. “Lake Bernard is the key because it is a nice deep lake so it freezes later.”

Four species of gulls were found on the count, again something that wouldn’t have been seen a decade ago.

There were nine glaucous gulls on this year’s count. There was a previous high of only two, which was last year. The high arctic gull is slightly larger than a herring gull with white wing tips.

The belted king fisher, who feeds on minnows, was seen for the fifth time on the count.

The group spied an above average of blue jays with 221, 920 chickadees and three cardinals.

“In late October in early November there was a huge movement of cardinals from the south to the north from New York State, Pennsylvania, and up to us,” said Parker. “There are four cardinals coming to feeders now in the Sundridge area that are outside the count’s circle.”

Parker says there are more than 30 places in the North Bay perimeter that saw cardinals.

“The three cardinals that are left are part of this big influx,” he said. “…all of a sudden there are too many cardinals around for the environment to support them so a whole bunch of them came north looking for new turf.”

Three bald eagles were seen this year. The species of eagle is now a mainstay on the count. Two were spotted near Lake Bernard, the other in the Magnetawan area.

“They are now nesting in the region,” said Parker.

Parker says the bird population is rekindling after the ban of long-term pesticides such as 24D and DDT. The use of such chemicals caused the continental collapse of bird populations including the bald eagle, the osprey, hawks and songbirds.

Parker says there was likely a large bald eagle population in the area about a century ago but when settlers cleared the land the birds were considered a nuisance.

“And in the fifties and sixties, people used to put out poison bait for the wolves,” he said. “The eagles, chickadees and gray jays would all feed on it… It’s exciting. It’s a sign that we’ve done something right to the environment. We took chemicals away,” said Parker.

Parker says winter finches, such as pine gross beaks, white wing crossbills, red crossbills were low on the count again this year.

“If you look at your conifer trees there are no cones,” he said. “The birds that feed on seeds contained in cones are gone.”

Those birds are living further south.

“The bohemian waxwing is one that was in big numbers a while ago. They’re gone,” he said. “They feed on red berries. Those berries are gone. They’re eaten. So they’ve moved on.”